My time with the Nokia Lumia 1520

I have the chance to trial the Nokia Lumia 1520, courtesy of Connects. They sent me the beautiful glossy red one.

My first impression of the phone when I took it out of the box was "This is huge!", and it is indeed. I used the device all day and ended up saying that my Lumia 925 was too small. Lol, I mean, you get used to the size of the 1520 very quickly. Yes the phone is big and is not really usuable with one hand, though I do it sometimes. Compared to the 4.5" screened Lumia 925, you can tell that the 1520 isn't for everyone.

No words on the build quality of the device, it’s just like one would expect about a Nokia phone, it's great. Despite the big size, I love holding the phone, it feels good in the hand. The 6" Full HD display is gorgeous. I really love every piece of the 1520, except one thing : it takes Nano SIMs.

The phone is powered by a Quad Core Snapdragon 800 processor, and it is fast. Windows Phone runs usually great on lower specs but here, it is..fast ! Loading time, boot time, everything’s faster compared to my Lumia 925. Woudn’t there be a problem if it wasn’t ? ;) But seriously, it’s really fast !

On the back of the phone, there’s the 20 megapixels camera that gave me the beautiful pictures you can find in my Flickr album. None of them is edited, all of them are great shots and I was impressed. I wish I had the Denim update and the new Lumia Camera to play with it but, it wasn’t there yet :(

I have added some photos at the end of this post but those are not the Full High Resolution pictures.. The ones in the Flickr album are High Res though.

And, take this video I recorded with the phone ; quality is good, audio is good, video is great ! Nothing I can add.

Battery life. Let's talk about battery life! It's awesome! I could have a day and half with normal usage (web, music, facebook messenger, watch some videos..) and I will still have some juice left. And standby time? 8 hours and only 2% discharge.. Okay the phone was in flight mode but still... I didn't have to worry about battery as I always do with my 925. And with my secondary SIM card in it, I was still having some great results, better than what I'm having with my 925. I was sometimes, using the 1520 as if the battery was infinite.

And let’s finish with Windows Phone. The phone runs Windows Phone 8.1, the version that brings it on part with other platforms. For me, Windows Phone is the OS to have ; it’s simple, it doesn’t lag, it’s beautiful and it'spersonal ! The virtual keyboard on 8.1 is better than any other keyboard (virtual or not) I’ve used on a smartphone. It’s intelligent and reactive. I really don't have much to say about Windows Phone aside that I’m glad it exists. But there is the app problem. App gap isn’t there for me, but the apps that I use are not really better than their counterpart on Android or iOS. Viber for example isn’t great. I sometimes have to close the app and reopen it to refresh. Not all of them does that though, I don’t have that issue with Whatsapp. The thing is, devs doesn’t really respect Windows Phone, and that’s sad ! Instagram, the forever BETA, another example. Third party apps are there to the rescue though, and they are good!

As you can tell, I am really a fan of this Lumia 1520. I liked every second I’ve spent with it. In the begining, I wasn’t even considering owning one due to its size and I couldn’t find a reason on having two devices of the same OS (I love diversity). But then Connects guys gave me this opportunity and I found out something. Let me explain : first, I forgot I owned a tablet..like, really ! Second, Windows Phone syncing is like it was real time. I get a text message on my 925 and it appears on the 1520 too, so I could answer with whatever device I want. There is Halo Spartan Assault too, savegames syncs: started with 925, continued where I left with the 1520. No problem sir! Now I do want a 1520 to replace my tablet.

Overall, the Lumia 1520 gave me a great experience and I am very thankful to the Connects guys on sending me this device. And now that it’s gone, I really miss it..